A well-known inkjet-type recording apparatus is configured to form (record) an image on a recording medium by ejecting ink droplets thereon. Such recording apparatus is provided with a cartridge accommodating portion. An ink cartridge is insertable into and removable from the cartridge accommodating portion.
Generally, an ink cartridge stores therein ink of a particular color, such as black, cyan, magenta and yellow. That is, each ink cartridge carries particular information in terms of color. In case that a recording apparatus is provided with a plurality of ink cartridge accommodating portions, there may be chances that an ink cartridge for black is inadvertently mounted in the cartridge accommodating portion adapted to accommodate an ink cartridge for cyan.
There has been proposed a recording apparatus that can detect wrong installation of ink cartridges. This recording apparatus can determine types of mounted ink cartridges by reading individual identification stored in an IC chip attached to each ink cartridge. Another proposed recording apparatus can detect types of mounted ink cartridges by detecting values of resistor attached to each ink cartridge in order to detect wrong installation of the ink cartridges.
There has been proposed another type of recording apparatus provided with a detection unit using a photointerrupter for detecting a residual amount of ink in an ink cartridge. The ink cartridge used for this recording apparatus is provided with a prism or a sensor arm that enables an intensity of light incident on a photodiode to change depending on whether the ink is present at a prescribed position. The recording apparatus can determine whether the residual amount of ink is less than a prescribed amount by detecting a voltage outputted from the photointerrrupter.